Four U.S. soldiers killed in bomb attacks

DEVELOPMENTS

Contractor electrocuted:
A State Department contractor apparently has been electrocuted while showering in Baghdad even as U.S. authorities in Iraq try to remedy wiring problems that have led to the deaths of U.S. troops there. Contractor Adam Hermanson, 25, died Sept. 1, his wife, Janine, said yesterday. She said a military medical examiner told her that preliminary findings indicate her husband died from low-voltage electrocution. Hermanson grew up in San Diego and Las Vegas and served three tours in Iraq with the Air Force before leaving at the rank of staff sergeant. He returned to Iraq as an employee of Herndon, Va.-based private contractor Triple Canopy.

Gates on bombings:
A spate of suicide bombings in Iraq in recent months is an attempt by al-Qaeda to reignite sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Al-Jazeera.

BAGHDAD — Four U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday in two bomb attacks while on patrol in Iraq, in one of the deadliest days for U.S. troops in two months.

In the first incident, a soldier was killed when a roadside bomb struck his convoy in southern Baghdad, military officials said.

The U.S. Army did not provide details, but an official from the Iraqi Interior Ministry said the patrol was on its way back to its base when it was hit in an area between Baghdad and Mahmudiya, a region south of the capital that was once so dangerous that its inhabitants nicknamed it the “Triangle of Death.”

Later, three soldiers died after being wounded by an improvised bomb while on patrol in northern Iraq.

Yesterday's attacks were the deadliest for U.S. troops since June 29, when four soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.

In all, at least 4,343 U.S. service members have died since the war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Iraqi security forces also said a U.S. Army patrol came under fire yesterday afternoon near the town of Hawija, southwest of the contested, oil-rich city of Kirkuk. There was no word on casualties.

Also yesterday, two policemen were killed and three others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Kirkuk. Four other policemen were killed by an improvised explosive device in Tuz, south of Kirkuk.

In Mosul, a civilian died in a roadside bombing, and a soldier was gunned down at a checkpoint, Iraqi officials said.

U.S. troops completed a withdrawal from Iraq's urban areas June 30. Under a bilateral security agreement, all U.S. combat troops must leave Iraq by the end of August 2010.